Goal
Reflection
Time Changes All
Confucius once said, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. I am happy to say that while I have not followed every piece of advice given to me in my lifetime, I did follow this one and I am glad I did. Teaching is the most rewarding and enlightening job I have ever had the pleasure to have. Teaching does come with a very important responsibility that some tend to overlook; to be a life-long learner. I do not want to become stagnant or complacent with what I have learned. I do not wish to be a “laminated teacher” and that is why I am taking this step to embark on a new and exciting adventure in my quest for constant knowledge.
To begin, my professional goal is simple; to be the absolute best teacher I can be, which includes being up to date on educational theories and practices. My plan is to teach elementary age children for the next twenty to thirty years. Eventually, I would like to pursue teaching education in higher education. Inspiring future educators as a professor would be such a rewarding endeavor. I believe my graduate degree will help me become a better elementary teacher and will help make me marketable for the higher education position I someday aspire to.
Second, as an elementary teacher, my choice of degree concentration was in Literacy Education. In the elementary classroom, literacy is key. I think this concentration will help me become a better teacher to emergent readers. I am also interested in becoming a literacy leader or even a literacy coach, which I think this concentration will help me with.
My goals for my career when I started my program in January of 2018 are still the same as the goals I have currently. I still want to develop my craft, particularly in literacy education. I still aspire to become a leader in the literacy realm. I still hope to become a professor someday when I feel I have taught elementary school long enough. In fact, I have recently applied to become an adjunct professor at a local community college once my MAED program is officially completed.
One thing that has changed since I applied to my program is the grade I was slated to teach. When applying I was believing that I was moving from fourth grade down to first grade. I was extremely anxious for this new challenge because I had only taught third and fourth grade before. Although I ended up teaching a new grade, it was not first. Instead for the past two years, I have taught second grade. It is definitely a different world than third and fourth grade and their literacy needs are extremely different and imperative. My choice to concentrate in literacy was still extremely beneficial with this grade switch.
In conclusion, I am always pushing myself to learn more about my field. I feel very confident that this graduate program has helped me do so.